U.S. patent application number 12/515030 was filed with the patent office on 2010-06-10 for apparatus for transferring advertising content to a mobile telephone.
This patent application is currently assigned to Shozu Ltd.. Invention is credited to Lei Bramley, Russell Bulmer, Neil Pepper, Andrew Tiller.
Application Number | 20100146079 12/515030 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37605345 |
Filed Date | 2010-06-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100146079 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Bramley; Lei ; et
al. |
June 10, 2010 |
APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING ADVERTISING CONTENT TO A MOBILE
TELEPHONE
Abstract
A mobile telephone obtains (or is supplied) advertising content
from a remote server and locally stores that advertising content.
The advertising content is then automatically shown in association
with a running, in use (e.g. in foreground) application that
generates a screen that an end-user interacts with (`an end-user
application`). The content is shown `automatically` in the sense
that the advertising content is displayed without the end-user
explicitly requesting any specific item of content, (although he
may opt-in to the general approach of having advertising content
displayed on his mobile telephone). The telephone itself determines
which adverts etc. it should display, depending on which
application is currently being used (i.e. is currently displayed on
screen).
Inventors: |
Bramley; Lei; (London,
GB) ; Bulmer; Russell; (London, GB) ; Tiller;
Andrew; (London, GB) ; Pepper; Neil; (London,
GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Saul Ewing LLP (Philadelphia)
Attn: Patent Docket Clerk, 2 North Second St.
Harrisburg
PA
17101
US
|
Assignee: |
Shozu Ltd.
London
EN
|
Family ID: |
37605345 |
Appl. No.: |
12/515030 |
Filed: |
November 15, 2007 |
PCT Filed: |
November 15, 2007 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/GB2007/050694 |
371 Date: |
December 8, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
709/219 ;
719/331 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 1/72427 20210101;
H04M 1/72457 20210101; G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0255 20130101;
H04W 4/60 20180201; H04M 3/4878 20130101; H04M 1/72442
20210101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/219 ;
719/331 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/16 20060101
G06F015/16; G06F 9/46 20060101 G06F009/46 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Nov 15, 2006 |
GB |
0622792.0 |
Claims
1. A method of selecting which advertising content, obtained from a
remote server and stored on a mobile telephone, should be
automatically displayed on the mobile telephone; the method
comprising the step of a client application on the telephone
automatically providing appropriate advertising content for one or
more end-user applications to display, so that a specific end-user
application automatically displays advertising content that is
appropriate for it.
2. The method of claim 1 in which the client application is
installed onto the mobile telephone, the client application
managing the download and storage of advertising content from a
remote server onto the telephone and the presentation of any such
content on the telephone.
3. The method of claim 2 in which the client application is a
plug-in.
4. The method of claim 3 in which the client application is a
DLL.
5. The method of claim 1 in which the client application exposes an
interface that enables any end-user application running on the
telephone that can interact with that interface to retrieve or to
be pushed advertising content.
6. The method of claim 1 in which the content is of a type defined
by a particular end-user application on the telephone, or that meet
criteria defined by or associated with that end-user
application.
7. The method of claim 6 in which the end-user application defines
the media type and the required screen dimensions.
8. The method of claim 6 in which the criteria include one or more
of the gender, age, location, interests, telephone model of a
user.
9. The method of claim 1 in which the client application records
the number of times an item of content has been viewed.
10. The method of claim 1 in which the client application records
the length of time an item of content has been viewed.
11. The method of claim 1 in which the client application records
how often a user clicks on content to interact with that content or
obtain further information or a service relating to the
content.
12. The method of claim 1 in which the client application records
one or more of the gender, age, location, interests, telephone
model of a user that has viewed an advert.
13. The method of claim 1 in which the client application transmits
its records to a remote server.
14. The method of claim 1 in which the client application
determines for how long an item of content should be continuously
displayed.
15. The method of claim 1 in which the telephone downloads new
content from a remote server as an automatic, background process
that does not interrupt normal use of the telephone.
16. The method of claim 15 in which the automatic, background
process is a data replication or synchronisation process between
the telephone and the remote server.
17. The method of claim 1 in which the type of content downloaded
to a particular telephone is of a type appropriate to an end-user
applications on that telephone that is in use.
18-21. (canceled)
22. A method of displaying advertising on a mobile telephone, in
which: (a) a client application is installed onto the telephone,
the client application: (i) managing the download and storage of
advertising content from a remote server and the presentation of
any advertising content and (ii) exposing an interface that enables
any end-user application running on the telephone that can interact
with that interface to retrieve or to be pushed appropriate content
using the client application; and (b) the client application
automatically displays that appropriate advertising content.
23. (canceled)
24. An apparatus for transferring advertising content to a mobile
telephone; the apparatus comprises: (a) a server for storing the
advertising content and sending that content to a mobile telephone
over a wireless network; (b) a mobile telephone operable to store
the content in content memory; (c) a client application on the
telephone automatically providing appropriate advertising content
for one or more end-user applications to display, so that a
specific end-user application automatically displays advertising
content that is appropriate for it.
25. An end-user application running on a mobile telephone, the
end-user application (i) interfacing with a client application
resident on the telephone and (ii) automatically displaying
advertising content retrieved by the client application from a
local memory storing advertising content on the telephone, that
content being appropriate to the application.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] This invention relates to an apparatus for transferring
advertising content to a mobile telephone; it relates also to a
method of selecting appropriate advertising content to display in
association with applications running on a mobile telephone.
[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0004] It is becoming increasingly common to show advertisements on
a mobile telephone. The typical approach, exemplified by the
AdMob.TM. service, is for a publisher of a mobile web site (e.g. a
WAP site) to add some lines of AdMob code to their web site. An
advertiser creates an advert, sends that advert to a central AdMob
server and then bids on that server to have it included on selected
mobile web sites. The server analyses bids and sends adverts that
have the highest bids to the appropriate mobile web sites, so that
those adverts are displayed on mobile telephones when users view
those web sites with a browser. When a user clicks on an advert on
a mobile web site, the advertiser pays both AdMob and the owner of
the mobile web site. Advertising systems such as this have an
important role to play because they can encourage people to create
new mobile web sites and enable mobile users to locate products and
services of interest.
[0005] One limitation of this typical approach is that it works
only with mobile web sites (e.g. WAP sites)--i.e. sites that are
seen and interacted with using a browser application running on the
mobile telephone. Although browsers are commonplace, the experience
of interacting with mobile web sites using a browser can be poor.
Also, adverts may not be relevant to an end-user and hence may be
irritating (conversely, if adverts that are genuinely useful to
end-users could be displayed on a mobile telephone at the right
time, then it is likely that click-through rates would be
relatively high, given the closer relationship many users have with
their mobile telephones, compared with their desktop PCs.)
[0006] Further, mobile telephones and PDAs are becoming
increasingly powerful and able to run multiple local applications
(e.g. Java applications) very quickly; these make WAP sites appear
very cumbersome. But to date, there has been no viable and
effective way of displaying advertising on these local
applications.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The invention is an apparatus for transferring advertising
content to a mobile telephone; the apparatus comprises: [0008] (a)
a server for storing the advertising content and sending that
content to a mobile telephone over a wireless network; [0009] (b) a
mobile telephone operable to store the content in a content memory;
[0010] (c) a client application on the telephone automatically
providing appropriate advertising content for one or more end-user
applications to display, so that a specific end-user application
automatically displays advertising content that is appropriate for
it.
[0011] A related method includes the steps of selecting which
advertising content, obtained from a remote server and stored on a
mobile telephone, should be displayed on the mobile telephone; the
method comprises the step of a client application on the telephone
automatically providing appropriate advertising content for one or
more end-user applications to display, so that a specific end-user
application automatically displays advertising content that is
appropriate for it.
[0012] The present invention hence provides for the telephone
itself to obtain or be supplied advertising content from a remote
server and to locally store that advertising content. This
advertising content is then automatically shown in association with
a running, in use (e.g. in foreground) application that generates a
screen that an end-user interacts with (`an end-user application`).
The content could include text, images, sound and multi-media
content. The content is shown `automatically` in the sense that the
advertising content is displayed without the end-user explicitly
requesting any specific item of content, (although he may opt-in to
the general approach of having advertising content displayed on his
mobile telephone). The advertising content may be shown at the same
time as content generated by the application itself (e.g. in a
small window underneath the display generated by the application)
or there may be short breaks away from the application itself
during which the advertising content is shown.
[0013] The telephone itself then determines which adverts etc. it
should display, depending on which application is currently being
used (i.e. is currently displayed on screen). It should be noted
that in some mobile telephones, it is possible to have several
applications concurrently in use and being displayed/controlling
screen estate, e.g. each within their own window, or running in
different areas of the screen; each application could be associated
with different advertising content.
[0014] By enabling the telephone itself to automatically display
locally stored advertising content etc., depending on the
particular application being used, it is possible to have
advertising content displayed in different end-user applications
running locally on the telephone. These end-user applications will
typically operate far more rapidly than WAP based sites, with their
associated high latency links. The present invention hence enables
advertising content that is context appropriate to be rapidly
retrieved and included within many of these end-user applications,
each running on a mobile telephone. This contribution is itself
predicated on the mobile telephone itself including new components
(albeit ones that may be implemented in software)--namely, in an
implementation, (a) the client application that downloads the
advertising content from a remote server and exposes a generic API
accessible to many different end-user applications running on the
telephone, enabling each to request/be sent appropriate advertising
content and (b) the local store of advertising content.
[0015] This difference over the prior art is illustrated in FIGS. 1
and 2. FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art advertising content
distribution system, in which a content server 1, that hosts
advertising content, feeds content to mobile WAP sites 2. Mobile
WAP sites 2 incorporate the advertising content into their own
content. A mobile telephone 3 includes a browser application 4 that
enables a user to view WAP sites 2 over a wireless link.
[0016] An implementation of the present invention is shown
schematically in FIG. 2. A content server 20 stores content. A
wireless connection links the content server with a mobile
telephone 21. A client application (advertising engine) 22 loaded
onto the mobile telephone retrieves content from the server 20 and
places it into local content store 23 (which is typically the main
memory of the device--not necessarily a dedicated memory). It uses
a data replication system (not shown) to obtain the content. The
client application 22 exposes an open API 24, enabling any end-user
application 25, 26, running on the device to call for or be pushed
appropriate content from the client application 22, which in turn
retrieves appropriate content from the local store 23 and provides
it to the application for display.
[0017] Further optional implementation features include: [0018] the
client application is a plug-in. [0019] the client application is a
DLL (dynamic linker library). [0020] the client application exposes
an interface that enables any application running on the telephone
that can interact with that interface to retrieve or to be pushed
content/adverts etc. using the client application. [0021] the
content/adverts etc. are of a type defined by a particular
application on the telephone, or that meet criteria defined by or
associated with that application; the application defines the media
type and the required screen dimensions for the advertising content
and the criteria include one or more of the gender, age, location,
interests, telephone model of a user. [0022] the client application
records the number of times content/adverts etc. has been viewed.
[0023] the client application records the length of time
content/adverts etc. have been viewed. [0024] the client
application records how often a user clicks on content/adverts etc.
to interact with them or obtain further information or a service
relating to them. [0025] the client application records one or more
of the gender, age, location, interests, telephone model of a user
that has viewed content/advert. [0026] the client application
transmits its records to a remote server. [0027] the client
application determines for how long content/adverts etc. should be
continuously displayed or changed for new content/adverts etc.
[0028] the telephone downloads new content/adverts etc. from a
remote server as an automatic, background process that does not
interrupt normal use of the telephone. [0029] the automatic,
background process is a data replication or synchronisation process
between the telephone and the remote server. [0030] the type of
content/adverts etc. downloaded to a particular telephone are of a
type appropriate to one or more applications on that telephone and
to the particular telephone model. [0031] if a diary application is
being used, then the type of content/adverts etc. defined by the
diary application for retrieval using the client application are
adverts for events (e.g. cinema, sports, TV). [0032] if a personal
finance/e-wallet application is being used, then the type of
content/adverts etc. defined by the personal finance/e-wallet
application for retrieval using the client application are adverts
from banks/financial services. [0033] if a music download or play
application is being used, then the type of content/adverts etc.
defined by the music application for retrieval using the client
application include adverts for new CDs, tracks, ringtones, videos
and concerts etc. [0034] if a games related application is being
used, then the type of content/adverts etc. defined by the games
related application for retrieval using the client application are
adverts for new games. [0035] More generally, the advertising
content automatically displayed is selected to be context
appropriate, given the live/in-use application.
[0036] Another aspect is a method of displaying adverts on a mobile
telephone, in which:
[0037] (a) a client application is installed onto the telephone,
the client application: (i) managing the download and storage of
advertising content from a remote server and the presentation of
any advertising content and (ii) exposing an interface that enables
any end-user application running on the telephone that can interact
with that interface to retrieve or to be pushed appropriate content
using the client application; and
[0038] (b) the client application automatically displaying that
appropriate advertising content.
[0039] Another aspect is a mobile telephone when displaying adverts
using any of the methods defined above.
[0040] A final aspect is an end-user application running on a
mobile telephone, the end-user application (i) interfacing with a
client application resident on the telephone and (ii) automatically
displaying advertising content retrieved by the client application
from a local memory storing advertising content on the telephone,
that content being appropriate to the application.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0041] The invention is described with reference to the
accompanying drawings in which:
[0042] FIG. 1 schematically depicts a prior art advertising content
distribution system, in which a WAP browser on a mobile telephone
views WAP content that includes advertising supplied by a content
server;
[0043] FIG. 2 schematically depicts an implementation of the
present invention in which a mobile telephone replicates
advertising content from a remote server; the mobile telephone
locally stores content and makes appropriate advertising content
available for display in various applications running on the
telephone;
[0044] FIG. 3 includes screenshots from a mobile telephone that
implements the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0045] This section describes an implementation of the present
invention in which mobile advertising middleware is used to deliver
advertisements to any application on a mobile device, and record
the number of times these advertisements are viewed. The middleware
includes a mobile client application (the advertising engine), a
central server, and the communications protocol that is used to
communicate between the two.
[0046] Mobile Advertising Engine
[0047] This technology provides a means to replicate any data
between a mobile telephone and a central server. The mobile
advertising middleware uses this replication technology to deliver
advertisements (which may include images, video, sounds and text),
to the advertising engine on the mobile device.
[0048] The advertising engine works as a plug-in that can be used
by any application on the telephone to manage the download and
presentation of adverts. The engine also records the number of
times advertisements are viewed/played/clicked on the mobile device
by the end user, and sends these statistics back to the central
server.
[0049] The advertising engine is a DLL that any other application
can use to retrieve advertisements of the type they wish to
display. This allows application developers to generate revenue by
displaying advertisements within their applications.
[0050] Use Case
[0051] The following example illustrates how the advertising engine
may be used by an application on a mobile device. A low budget
developer distributes a game application as shareware. Instead of
relying on donations, the developer can use the advertising engine
to generate revenues. The game connects to the advertising engine
to retrieve and display advertisements at various points during the
game (see FIG. 3).
[0052] For example, the user starts the game, which immediately
retrieves a full screen advert from the advertising engine and
displays it on the screen for a few seconds.
[0053] At the beginning of play, the game retrieves a smaller
advert from the advertising engine and displays it unobtrusively at
the bottom of the screen. The advert displayed may be swapped for a
different advert at appropriate points (e.g. every minute, or at
level changes).
[0054] The mobile advertising middleware serves relevant
advertisements according to the target audience for the game, and
collects information at a central server about the number of times
each advertisement is viewed. Revenue is collected by the service
provider operating the mobile advertising middleware, and an agreed
share is given to the game developer.
[0055] The above scenario is a very simple example of how the
mobile advertising middleware could be used. In practice,
commercial applications could use the advertising engine to provide
a much richer advertising experience on a mobile telephone--for
example using video and audio.
[0056] Technical Outline
[0057] The mobile advertising middleware provides the following
functions:
[0058] Initial Seeding
[0059] The advertising engine is initially seeded with a number of
generic adverts to enable the engine to be used without a
significant download of data to the telephone. Typically this would
include a number of small images.
[0060] Advert Updates
[0061] The advertising engine uses replication technology to
periodically download new advertisements to the mobile device in
the background, without interrupting normal use of the telephone.
The replication technology is described in WO 2004/057828, the
contents of which are incorporated by reference. The advertising
engine can be configured to connect and download a new set of
adverts at specified time intervals, or after a certain proportion
of the current adverts have been viewed.
[0062] Advert Retrieval
[0063] The advertising engine presents an application programming
interface (API) on the device, allowing any local application to
retrieve an advert. The mechanism supports simple or complex advert
retrieval: [0064] For the simple retrieval option, the application
requests an advert of a particular media type (image, video etc.)
and specifies the screen dimensions available for display. The
advertising engine randomly selects and returns an advert that fits
the criteria provided. [0065] The complex retrieval system allows
the application to specify more detailed criteria for the type of
advert required. For example, an application that requires a user
to register or sign up before use could pass the information
gathered (such as gender, age, location, interests etc.) to the
advertising engine, which would filter the adverts available for an
appropriate selection.
[0066] Advert Usage
[0067] All adverts that are requested from the advertising engine
are recorded and details sent back to the central server when a
connection is made. The details stored may consist of the number of
views of each advert, the number of times they were requested, and
the user details from the more complex advert retrieval system
requests.
[0068] Reporting to Partners
[0069] Usage statistics are recorded by the central server and made
available to advertising partners via a web site. The web site also
enables partners to submit and manage the adverts they want to
offer for display on mobile devices via the mobile advertising
middleware.
* * * * *